Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

Once fairly common in the southeastern United States, this bird is now rare, local, and considered a threatened species. It requires precise conditions within mature pine forest, a habitat that is now scarce. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker lives in isolated clans. Each clan makes up an extended family group with one pair of adults assisted in their nesting by up to four additional birds. The red cockade, for which the bird is named, is a small patch of feathers behind the eye of the male. This cockade is usually hard to see in the field.